gfizer

The $18,000 loss would have been dealt with by the brother when he reported the sale of his interest to your client's mother. It has no affect on your client's basis

Thanks. Refund is around 4k. His live-in girlfriend gave birth to their son in 2015 so he filed head of household and claimed the child and the girlfriend whereas he has always filed single with no dependents in the past. I'm guessing the holdup has something to do with these changes.

I have a client who is driving me bananas! His return was filed and accepted on February 19th and his refund still has not been direct deposited. Where's My Refund tool shows that the return is still being processed. Refund hotline says that the return is still being processed. He is convinced he is being audited and wants to speak to a real live person and not an automated system. I have told him to call 1-800-829-1040 but that's not good enough. Is anyone aware of any other numbers that he could call to speak to someone to find out what the holdup is?

Kentucky does not require that the filing status follow the federal status. Most of the time taxpayers who file jointly for federal purposes have a better outcome on the Kentucky return using married filing separately on combined return.

Per the Form 8962 instructions (as long as all policies were issued in the same state) you should only enter the figure from column b (SLCSP premium) from only ONE Form 1095-A

I have been at this nearly 30 years and many of my clients are like family. It is sad to see them decline and pass on and sometimes I stop and remind myself that they are also seeing changes in me. There are a few of my clients that are no longer able to leave the house and so I make a house call. I'm glad to be able to offer this small service and I am always happy to see them. That being said, there are also those that make me cringe when I see them coming through the door, but the good far outweigh the bad.

Client purchased a vacation rental in September 2014 which was placed in service in December 2014. Purchase price was $185,000 - $11300 allocated to land (per property tax bill) and $173,700 allocated to cabin. In April of 2015 an arsonist saw fit to set fire to the cabin. The cabin was gutted by fire but not completely destroyed. Insurance paid $157,000.00 and client spent $112,500.00 to repair the property. Once the property was repaired the client decided she wanted no part of it and sold it in an arms length transaction on December 9th for $113,000.00. I keep chasing my tail on this one. How do I report it? Do I have to go through the casualty loss calculation on Form 4684 or can I just report everything on Form 4797 for the sale of the property, taking into account the receipt of insurance proceeds and cost of repairs in the calculation of the basis of the cabin?

Per the "My ATX Blog": CO individual and business- Colorado has notified vendors that they are experiencing processing issues dated back to Feb 10th

That was the problem!!! I guess I will just mail the brokerage statement with the 8453. Stick a fork in me. I am DONE!! Thanks to everyone for all your help and input this year!

This one won't even transmit. I transmitted an extension with no problem so I am beginning to think it is just something with this particular return. It has a PDF attachment of a brokerage statement. I may try removing the attachment and see what happens. Getting desperate at this point. I want to go home!

Anyone else getting a message saying "The service is unavailable at the current time"? I am down to the last one and it won't go. AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!

Thanks, Judy. That has been my feeling about it all along and I told them I thought that was the way it had to be done. They probably won't like it but at this point I don't much care.

Yes. It is a professional limited liability company filing as a general partnership.

I agree with Pacun. Nothing to do until you receive the 1099-R for 2015.

I have a partnership return for a law firm. One of the partners left the firm at the end of October, 2014. They changed the name of the firm when the partner left in October and did all the necessary filings with the Kentucky Secretary of State's Office to reflect the partnership name but they are still operating under the same Federal EIN they have always used. They don't quite have their info together and have asked me to file an extension for the partnership and the remaining individual partners. They want to file a short period return for January thru October under the old firm name and a short period return for November and December under the new name. This is mainly so that the previous partner will not have any access to any information regarding the earnings/affairs of the firm after she left in October. Do I need to file 2 extensions - one for each period and can I even do that using the same EIN? Or do I just file one extension for their EIN and then do the two short period returns when the time comes?

Is there any document which gives her the legal right to live in the home for her lifetime or is it just a verbal agreement between mother and son? How did the real estate come to be titled solely in the son's name after his father's death? I don't know what the laws of intestate succession are in your state but in Kentucky the spouse and the children each inherit a 1/2 interest in the decedent's property. I would think if there is a legal grant of the lifetime right to live in the home then she has a life estate ad therefore sufficient interest in the property to deduct the mortgage interest and taxes.

The flip side is that if your client has medical expenses that are published and shared among the members then he does not have to count the money received from other members as income and he gets to deduct the whole amount as medical expense (subject to the % of AGI and assuming he can itemize, of course).

I feel for you, Catherine. I've been fighting a terrible sinus infection for over a week now. My husband keeps saying I need to go to the doctor but my question is WHEN exactly am I supposed to do that. I don't have time to wait in the doctor's office just now and I'm pretty sure they would laugh at me if I suggested they needed to work around my schedule. I also moved my office out of my home this year so I can relate to that as well. Hope you feel better soon! Hang in there.

That's what I thought, Pacun. I told him he needed to have receipts and documentation to prove greater than 50% support. He is talking about bringing them to the US in 2015 to live with him. I assume he would then qualify for all the benefits afforded to taxpayers with qualifying children at that point (i.e. child tax credit, EIC, HOH filing status). Thanks for your quick response!

My husband and I, both self-employed, participate in Good Samaritan health care sharing ministry. It is my understanding that the monthly share amounts paid are not deductible anywhere - not on Schedule A or as self-employed health insurance. If your client makes donations directly to Good Samaritan for sharing unmet or unpublishable needs then those amounts would be deductible as contributions on Schedule A. Participation does however qualify the taxpayer for an exemption from the health insurance coverage requirement. If anyone knows or finds anything different I would sure love to know about it.

I have a client who is a resident alien with a valid SSN. He sends money back to Mexico for the support of his two young nephews and he wants to claim them on his tax return this year. He has the completed form W-7 and required documents for both children. According to what I am able to understand we simply paper file the return this year with the Forms W-7 attached and the IRS will issue ITIN numbers. Do I simply show the two children as dependents on the 1040 as nephews who lived with taxpayer 0 months and leave the box for US Citizen or Resident alien unchecked? This is my first experience with this so I appreciate the help of all you who have done these returns. Is there anything else I need to do/know? Thanks.

Dear Client, Yes, I know that you are a used car salesman and your time is much more valuable than mine. To that end, let me save us both some time and tell you that yes, I am quite sure child support is not deductible (even if all your buddies are doing it), and regardless of what your employer told you, the shirts, ties and khaki's you wear to work every day are not "specialized" clothing and therefore not deductible, and oh, you were also grossly misinformed by whoever told you that the 5 miles you drive from your home to work every day are deductible. They are not. I also seriously doubt that your cell phone is being used 100% for business since in the short time we've been in this interview you have used it to a) call your wife, b ) text your church's treasurer for info about your charitable deductions, and c) look up your babysitter's address. I am painfully aware that you do not want to "take it up the tailpipe" from the IRS as you so eloquently stated. This is not my first rodeo. I will do my best to make sure your return is done accurately and in a way that best benefits you within the limits of the law and tax code. Give me a little credit here. Geeez! That is all. Thank you and have a nice day.

I am going to be way up this year but that is attributable to the fact that I moved my office out of my home this year to a highly visible location downtown. Most of what I've done thus far are new returns. My regulars just started rolling in last week. It could get a little tricky in the next few weeks.

I think I have read something about this somewhere but I'm tired and I can't think so here goes.... Clients have a son in his first year of college and they qualify for American opportunity credit. Expenses were as follows: $3985 Tuition and $3625 Room & Board. Student received $3832 in scholarships and grants and the rest was paid partly through a student loan and partly by the parents. Can scholarships and grants first be applied to room and board which would then leave qualified education expenses of $3,778 for purposes of figuring AOC or do the scholarships and grants first have to be applied to tuition?

The tools in my case were all purchased in 2015. The taxpayer is a young man fresh out of college in 2013 and just started this job in 2014. And while some of the items are small things there is a purchase of Snap On tool box to the tune of $4,500.